Pipe cleaner or swab



Apri 5, 1960 M. B. SIEGEL 2,931,366

PIPE CLEANER OR SWAB Filed Jan. 3, 1956 f2 v/ zfo r:

PIPE CLEANER OR SWAB Morris B. Siege], Chicago, 11]., assignor to Bryn l\ lawr Smokers Novelty (10., Chicago, 11]., a copartnership Application January 3, 1956, Serial No. 557,043 1 Claim. (Cl. 131-245) This invention provides improvements in probe-type swabs and cleaners such as pipe cleaners which consist of lengths of twisted wire with cotton or other fibres locked-in along the length of the twist.

It has been proposed heretofore to fabricate such cleaners with additional lengths of wire more or less loosely interwoven with the main body wires, these additional lengths of wire being more or less loosely coiled or laid along the cotton fibres for the purpose of providing added scraping and reaming portions substantially harder than the cotton fibres.

According to the present invention, a cleaner or swab of the class described is provided in which lengths of nonmetallic plastic filament are intertwined with the cotton threading or filaments and then cut in a manner to afford a multitude of short, stubby lengths of plastic bristles projecting more or less laterally of the length of the cleaner body wire and more or less uniformly distributed amongst the cotton fibres to provide a very effective scouring and scraping action.

The method of fabricating these novel cleaners and the various structural characteristics thereof will appear more fully as the following description proceeds in view of the annexed drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a magnified fragmentary elevational view of one of the novel cleaners;

Fig. 2 is a section taken along line 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a partial top plan schematic of parts of a known type of forming machine which may be employed in making the cleaners;

Fig. 4 is a partial magnified fragmentary perspective view of a length of the body wires with partially interwound cotton and plastic filaments as conjoined at the forming head.

The length of completed cleaner shown in Fig. 1 consists of at least two body wires 10, A twisted together in a running span which is cut to desired lengths (e.g. five inches) convenient for use and packaging.

The body wires are generally annealed iron and have interlocked between the twists thereof short lengths of cotton fibres 11 which form a fiuifed absorbent coating about the body wires substantially concealing and insulating the latter from contact with the object to be cleaned.

As seen in Fig. 2, there are also intertwisted and dispersed amongst the cotton fibres a multitude of plastic stubs 12 which are considerably thicker in cross section than the individual sheared cotton fibres; and it will be observed that the general direction of projection of both the cotton and plastic elements tends to be substantially perpendicular to the core or body wires 10, 10A.

One method of forming the novel cleaner relies upon use of a so-called chenille machine, some form of which is employed in the manufacture of most conventional pipe cleaners of the general type here under consideration.

Since these forming machines per se do not constitute any part of the present invention and are well known in nited States Patent 0 the art, no detailed structure thereof will be described, the schematic layout of Fig. 3 being sufficient to illustrate the present methods and forming operations for fabricating the novel cleaner.

The tufted cleaner or swab is customarily made by rotating a bobbin head 15 (Fig. 3) carrying bobbins 30A, 31A of multi-strand cotton cord or string, which is wound from opposite sides onto a plurality of steel, skeletonform wires 18 leading out through a stationary central throat 19 in the head and thence over spindles 20 to take-up reels (not shown).

The skeleton or forming wires 18 are used over and over and simply provide a temporary framework upon which the forming operations are performed.

Also feeding into the throat 19 are a first pair of iron body wires 22, 23 hauled out from spools 22A, 23A, and a second or trailing pair of body Wires 24 and 25 payed out from spools 24A and 25A over forming rollers 26, 27 into conjunction with the other two body wires, so that both pairs of body wires ultimately emerge for attachment, as at 22X, 23X, to an outhaul bar 28.

In the foregoing conjunctive feeding of the body wires, the rearmost wire 22 will become intertwisted with the corresponding foremost wire 24 for attachment as a pair at 22X; and the other rearward or leading wire 23 will become similarly married or intertwisted with the other forward wire 25 for attachment as another pair at 23X to said outhaul, which is a simple, wooden cross bar carried horizontally on a pair of steel trolly wires 29 and is hauled out by means not shown commensurately with the forming up of the two stock lengths A, B of completed cleaner twist.

The forming apparatus thus far described is old in the art, but its operation in laying-on, intertwisting, and cutting the two kinds of filament employed in the novel construction, must be understood in order to comprehend how the resulting cleaner with laterally-projecting plastic stubble is achieved on a production basis.

In fabricating the ordinary old-style, simple pipe cleaner on a machine of the class described, filaments 30, 31 of cotton string (each consisting of several smaller strands of finer cotton thread intertwined) are payed off spools 30A, 31A across the rotating ring 15A on the bobbin head, so as to be laid from opposite directions onto the forming wires 18 just in advance of the forming wheels 26, 27, as at 33, to be spirally twisted onto said wires and also around only the first or leading pair of body wires 22, 23 (see also Fig. 4).

Located at the point of conjunction or marrying of the trailing pair of body wires 2425 with the wrapped form of string 33 at forming wheels 22, 27, is a splitting knife 35, shown also schematically in Fig. 4, and which is situated in between each pair of skeleton or frame wires 18A, 18B, on one side, and 18C, 18D (Fig. 4) on the other, so as to split the total cotton wrap down the middle.

The aforesaid splitting, however, occurs just at the point where the body wires 24, 25 conjoin with the spiral wrap, and because each of the two outhaul portions of the finished wires is being constantly rotated at points 22X, 23X by known continuous-circuit pulley drive means 40, and further because the machine is started with the forward ends of the pairs of wires 24 and 25 each respectively twisted onto one of the trailing wires 22, 23 at 22X, 23X, the conjoining body wires 22 and 24 on the left-hand, and 23 and 25 on the right-hand, become intertwisted at wheels 26, 27, and more precisely at the point of severance by knife 35 of the cotton threads on the skeleton form Wires, with the result that the multitudes of cut cotton threads are successively caught in between intertwisting pairs of body wires and tend to project more or less radially and fiufi-out, as depicted in Fig. 2.

' 3 :iUp tothis point, the method and operationof the forming machine is old and well known. I,

The manufacture of cleaners in accordance with the invention involves the intertwisting of at least one relatively heavy plastic filament 50 (Fig.- 4) with the cotton string 30, this plastic filament being preferably prewound on the spool 39Aalon'g with the cotton.

In practice, both spools 30A, 31A,;preferably will carry the .addediplastic filament; however, in order to simplify drawing the rather ditficult view of Fig. 4, the second plastic strand on 'spoo1'31A has been omitted. 7

As will appear from Fig. 4,'the plastic strand 50 is spirally .wound from the bobbin 30A onto the form wires conjointly with the first or leading cotton strings 22, 23, with the result that it is cut by knife 35 in the same manner as the cotton strands, and the short cut plastic stubs 12 are thereupon caught between the intertwisting iron body wires '23, 25, it being understood that there will actually be multitudes of the sheared cotton strands forminga fiufi, and many more of the plastic .s'tubs than can practically be shown in a view such as that in Fig. 4, so that the ultimate appearance of thefinished span is fuzzy and full (as in Figs. 1' and 2, and as is sought to be portrayed at the outhaul ends 22X, 23X in Fig.

In effect, therefore, the combination cotton and plastic filaments are first spirally wound onto a set of moving fo'rr n or skeleton wires 18 With certain bod'y wires 22, 23 fed along in the interstices of the skeleton frame to conjoin and intertwist with'other body Wires at the cutting station exactly at the point where the filamentary spiral (of cotton and plastic) is split apart, so that the cut pieces of' both materials would. fall away from the wire supportin'g frame if'they were not at this point caught up in the intertwis'ting sets of body Wires. 7

7 The outhaul means'28,.29, etc, will generally run the length of an alleysome 50 or more feet in length, and the two finished spans of cleaner wire will be wound as s'tock on reels (not shown) laterto be cut into short lengths for packaging ias'pipe cleaners, utensil cleaners, or swabs for cleaning small bores in various objects.

Because of its finer and more multitudinous character,

the cotton fibres tend to form a soft, fuzzy jacketabout the twisted body wires 22,24 (Fig. 2), Whereas the stiifer,

' thicker plastic stubs 12 tend to thrust out in amore defi'nitely radial sense and to present, especially at'their free outerends 12X, a relatively hard point affording a scraping action when a length of the cleaner is passed through the bore of a smokers p'pe or the like, thereby loosening matter not dislodged by the cotton.

Attempts have been made to'wind lengths of thin copper wire'abou't the outsiderof such cleaners to achieve a more satisfactory scouring action, butsuch expediencies are not eifective because the wire tends to bed down into the body of cotton whereas the present method of interlocking short stubbles of the harder material intothe twist for radial projection presents a multitude of relatively sharp ends and fingers which coact with the softer fibres stance.

The interlocked scouring stubbles 12 may be metal instead of plastic, by spooling suitably thin copper or other wire with the cotton string stock as with the plastic; however, the metal stubble requires harder cutting edges and more frequent dressing of the splitting knives 35, while the plasticfilament 50 provides a satisfactory scouring stubble and does not appear to dull the cutters appreciably more thandoes the cotton string.

The invention is not restricted to smoking-pipe cleaners nor to elongated swabs or brushes, but contemplates the use of relatively s'titr'er or harder material in the place of cotton fibres, as well as stiffer and harder materials in place of the plastic filament. For example, relatively thin and thick filaments of either non-metallic vegetable or synthetic fibres may be used in place of, either or both the cotton and the :plastic cords, one of'the important features of the invention being the interspersal of a body of very numerousmain fibres and interspersed'heavier, stifler stubbles, all projfectingradially from the inte'rtwisted body wires. i

'I claim:

A'pipe cleaner comprising lengths of wire having entwisted therewith a multitude'Of short, lengths of soft fibres of absorbent material ofthe class of cotton; and said wires having also entwisted'therewith a substantially lesser number of similarly short lengths of coarser, stiffer, and harder filaments whichiare non-absorbent, the'firstmentioned-soft fibres beingin such quantity and such uniformity of-length and jiistribution lengthwise along and about the wire-as to form. an uninterrupted fluffy, soft, and absorbent sheath thereaboutyand the aforesaid lesser number of; harder; filaments being in such: lesser quantity as to be'thinly but'uniformly scattered in intermixture with said softer fibres and of such length relative to the latter that the respective stubends of the harder smoking pipe.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,811,205

:Great Britain Sept. 24, 1936 

